The Point of the Engraver

A carefully squared block of highly polished endgrain boxwood or maple and a few sharpened gravers are insignificant in themselves. But in the hands of Hamilton artist Wesley Bates these seemingly inflexible demanding materials can create form, fluidity, mood, depth: an infinite world of light and shadow, monochrome and colour.

The English wood engraver Clare Leighton once wrote, `Of all media, wood-engraving is the one in which there is the least to be taught and the most to be learnt.' The engraver's challenge to engrave light onto the block and to respect the mystery of solid blacks and whites is not easily met; but Wesley learned his craft carefully and methodically. He shows his admiration for English wood engraving in his skilful use of these simple gravers and his ability to suggest character and expression in his subjects.

Wesley's engravings maintain their moods and tell their tales with style, sensitivity, humour and skill. The subject matter in The Point of the Graver ranges from traditional folk ballads (The Brisk Young Butcher) to modern allegories (A Contemporary Fable), from simple commissions (Ex Libris) to elaborate three-panel illustrations (To the Avon River above Stratford, Canada). In all of these Bates display a technical virtuosity that allows him to `live on the point of the graver' where there is the constant danger of passing the point of no return.

Wesley W. Bates was born in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. One of Canada's best-known wood engravers, Bates has ventured into book illustration (W. O. Mitchell's The Black Bonspiel of Willie MacCrimmon), commercial art (the voyageur motif for Upper Canada Brewery), letterpress publishing (through his West Meadow Press) and acoustic country -- played, naturally, on a bouzouki. A collection of his engravings, The Point of the Graver, was published to great acclaim in 1994. He now ma